A Lady in London

As a Californian, there are certain things I do year-round. BBQ, for example. Or wear far too few layers in the winter. And let’s not forget going to the beach. When I moved to London, I took those traditions with me. Which is how I found myself at the beach in East Sussex in February.

It’s not as bad as you think. The weather was as warm as it gets in the cold dead of winter, and there was a bright yellow thing in the sky that I used to know the name of before I moved to England.

I started out at Cliff End, which was part of Pett Beach. My friends and I walked up in the late afternoon, strolling over the seashell-studded stones as the waves sighed at the shore.

All along the beach and out into the water, low wooden posts punctuated the view.

In the distance, seagulls nested in the sandstone cliffs, occasionally circling the sky to look for food.

On the way back to Rye, where we were staying for the weekend, we stumbled upon Suttons Fish Shop, a little farm stand on Sea Road in Winchelsea.

It was brimming with beautiful produce and fresh seafood and game. We picked up a feast to BBQ for dinner, and continued on our way.

The next day we were back at the beach in East Sussex. But this time it was Camber Sands. Like Cliff End beach, it was pebbly, but beautiful dunes backed the shore.

Best of all, there were dogs everywhere. From a giant Newfoundland that sat down at the water’s edge and let the waves give him a salty bath to 16-week-old a black lab puppy that insisted on examining everything in smelling distance, we were in a canine paradise.

But our golden afternoon at the beach in East Sussex couldn’t last a lifetime. The wind picked up, reminding us that it was, in fact, February, and my under-clothed Californian skin got goosebumps. It was time to go back to Rye for a BBQ, completing my winter trifecta and getting me even more excited for my trip to San Francisco next week…